I made a decent salary as a COBOL developer (more like maintainer since nothing new was written). I was a first-year graduate making $80k+ in a Midwestern town. Senior salaries are probably hard to come by, I imagine, though...

I've got a uncle whose a COBOL solutions architect at a large company and he makes less than 125K. It's a decent living but he doesnt really have the ability to make a move like many of his .net based colleagues.

"Decent living" doesn't mean that you're under or overpaid for your skill set, position and responsibilities. It usually means based on your geographic area as a whole (or objectively whether or not you can sustain yourself).

The median household income in the US is a "decent living" in almost the entire country, even some urban centers. Saying that 2x+ is a "decent living" is completely tone deaf.

Really? That seems weirdly low, even with a lower COL taken into a account. In Southeast Michigan a new grad would expect to start somewhere around 60, and that's enough to buy a decent to huge house depending on where you end up living.

That's a sad salary. Especially when moving a few hours away to San Antonio will yield a 20k+/yr salary increase. Even if housing in Dallas were free, it's still better to move from a financial perspective.